Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Ths morning we drove from Jerusalemm back to Tel-Aviv. Soo sad to be leaving such a beautiful city, but our last day here in this gorgeous country is destined to be spent at the beach.

Of course, we aren't the smartest people in the whole world, and decide to spend the hottest part of our day ( at 40 degrees!) in the market trying to find the last of our souveniers. After this we went to the pool on the roof of the hotel.

I personally wanted to spend more time in the markets. All around me up here are rich, distontented people with no appreciated for the beauty that surrounds them. Going to the beach and mingling with the local which they play ping pong on the beach ( minus the table, plus the speedos) is a far better way to spend one's time than listening to some random forty year old lady flirt with the pool attendant. Not much to write down for today, we are getting up at 4am tomorrow to drive to the airport. We went for dinner in a restaurant that was right in the middle of the street! Then decided that pulling an all nighter wouldn't be the best idea, even if we had to get up at 4am to catch our plane. So we all crashed, and tried to perpare ourselves for leaving Israel.

This morning we went to the Hebrew University, where we had a tour of the campus. Dad had a meeting in Tel-Aviv, so us girls went back to the hotel where mom and I crashed for a few hours until dad got back. After dragging us out of bed, he was then responsible to find us food. He sort of failed epically. We finally found a place called Black Burgers, where I had their famous Meh burger. That might sound intimidating, but it was actually quite delicious! After lunch we walked through the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem. This is the best place to spend your money, as they are very honest. We had to go back to the hotel to drop off all the things we purchased. Then we caught a taxi to the Israeli museum, where we had dinner booked. Turns out it was closed, so we had to catch the same taxi back to the hotel. Our taxi driver laughed at us, he knew it had been closed, but proceeded to drive us there anyways.We decided to wander the German quarter to find somewhere to ear, and after wandering a bit (aka getting lost) we found a sushi place. Soooooo yummy!!!!

I'm writing this journal entry while watching my parents try to stuff all our souvenirs into the suitcases.... :) Not a very exciting day, but a restful one!!

This morning we met up with our tour guide Ophir again, and headed out in our golden van ( to match the golden city). Our first stop was the Mount of Olives. We had a beautiful view of Mout Moriah, or Mount Zion. The hill is covered with tombs of people trying to be the first to see the Messiah when He comes to the earth. We then had a short stop at King David's tomb, which is very close to the room of the Last supper. There were a few different groups in there. The first was a group of Chinese Christians, who began to sing a hymn. As soon as some of the Muslim people heard them singing, they began chanting, and soon the room was filled with large amounts of noise. We left before anything got more serious.

From there we parked the van and went to the garden of Gethsemane. This was a very quiet, restful place and we didn't spend long here.After this we started to walk the Via De La Rosa, and the worst tragedy that could have possible happened occurred. My camera died..... :(

Thankfully Mom had hers with her, so I didn't have a complete heart attack.

We got up onto the temple mount which is very resit riced for the Jews. The Muslims have built a mosque over where the Holy of Holies used to lie. Our guide got us up and we sat for a bit and talked about some of our goals for the next year. Ophir quite often stops us and gets us to really be still and appreciate the beauty of this place.

After we started on the Via Del La Rosa. It follows Jesus's believed route through Jerusalem from his trial until the spot where he died, was buried, and rose again. All of the sites are very Catholic, and there are several churches along the way.

About halfway through we got the 'best hummus in Jerusalem.' Very abtly named.

Then we said our goodbyes to Ophir and headed to find our next stop, the Time Elevator. It's was basically a small ride that was a summery of what we've learned so far. Not all that special, although it was a twenty-five minute break for our feet.

We then walked to the Tower of David, where they put on a light show. Now..don't' think some lights flashing...thing lights projecting images on a building that is thousands of years old, telling the story of the Israeli people. It was breathtaking. Then it was back to the hotel to grab our flip flops for our very sore feet, and off to our 9pm dinner.

Today a was a more emotional day as we traveled to Yad Vashem, a Holocaust memorial site. We spent four hours inside with a guide. After that tour, which might have included me tearing up about a million times, we went outside to the Garden of the Righteous of the Nations. Here are listed the names of those who saved Jewish lives during WWII. My Opa's aunt is listed there, and it was highly emotional and beautiful that we could be there. We believe we are the first family members to see her name there. After walking around for a while, we said goodbye to our guide and walked to the children's memorial. In here, they have a single candle and several mirrors that make the candle seem to stretch endlessly. They is a voice speaking listing the names of the one and a half million children who died during WWII. It was such a beautiful place, and I just wish we could have spent more time there. We spent five hours total, but could have easily spent an entire day and more. This museum was the one thing that truly made me excited to come to Israel.

If anyone is interested in hearing the story of my Tente Femmy...let me know. It's a story I am so very proud of. She was an amazing woman.

After the museum we went for lunch at a small diner near old Jerusalem. We walked a bit and did some shopping, our feet aching from excessive use. We went from an open market through the streets to a more well-to-do area. I preferred the market by far, it's a place where people have been coming for thousands of years. There are old men playing chess, and woman bargaining with the shopkeepers, it's a very inique environment. After shopping we went into Old Jerusalem, where we walked to the Western Wall. On the other side of this wall lies the Muslim Dome of the Rock. There were many Jewish people praying here, as it is as close as they can get to where the Holy of Holys was. We had a tour under the houses that are built on top of the wall, a wall that still has rocks from when King Solomon built the temple.